Feb. 15, 2008
Final Stats | Quotes 
MIAMI -
Senior right fielder Andrea Shifflet entered Friday's game against Providence College with zero hits in her first 10 at-bats as a Redbird. The Waynesville, Ill., native made up for lost time in a big way Friday, as she led the Illinois State softball team (3-3) past Providence College (0-2), 10-3, with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate at the Schutt Sports Invitational at the University Park Softball Complex in Miami. Shifflet's three hits in the game comprised nearly one-third of ISU's 14 hits, a season-high for the Redbirds.
Shifflet was one of five Redbird batters that recorded two-or-more hits in the game. Sophomore third baseman Kara Nelson was 3-for-5 with two RBI, while senior second baseman Tiffany Prager (3-for-4), junior shortstop Kaprice Williams (2-for-3) and freshman designated player Abby Olson (2-for-4) each had multiple-hit performances.
Junior pitcher Amber Smith (1-3) picked up her first win of the season, and third of her career, after she pitched 6.2 innings and allowed just three Providence runs, all earned, on eight hits. Sophomore walk-on Amy Mitchell pitched for the fourth time this season, as she recorded the final out of the game after she came in to pitch in relief of Smith with two outs and one Friar runner on base in the bottom of the seventh.
Shifflet's most productive hit came in ISU's biggest scoring effort, the top of the fifth inning, when her double to right field scored Williams and Olson, as ISU went up 3-0. Shifflet picked up her first-career hit in the top of the second inning when she blooped a single into short right field.
Illinois State's offensive output continued later in the fifth inning, as Nelson followed Shifflet with her second triple of the season, a standup, RBI three-bagger. Prager added to the scoring spree with a single to right field that drove in Nelson.
Providence made its first offensive attack in the bottom of the second inning, as Jennifer Maccio reached via a single and then advanced all the way to third base with two outs after Ava Pandiani doubled deep down the left field line past the Redbird left fielder, Jessie Buker. Smith got out of the jam after she induced a strikeout by Julie Fowler, as both sides exchanged zeros on the scoreboard until the top of the third inning.
In the top of the third, ISU broke the scoreless drought for both teams with two runs on two hits. After Prager reached on a single, Olson drove an Alisha Levin offering off the left-center field wall for her second-career double to score Prager. An error by the Friar's left fielder on a drifting line drive by center fielder Katie Mathis pushed Olson across the plate, as the Redbirds went up, 2-0.
The Redbirds added insurance runs in the top of the sixth and seventh innings. Shifflet drove in her second run of the game off her third hit to score catcher Casey Gorrell in the top of the sixth, while a walk by pinch hitter Kasey Martin in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded scored pinch runner Carly Billings, who was running for Smith.
Providence put up a mini-rally in the bottom of the seventh inning when it produced three hits, all with two out, to push three runs across the plate.
Illinois State will have a brief rest period before it resumes play later Friday at the Schutt Sports Invitational. Game time against host Florida International has been pushed back to approximately 8 p.m. CST from the University Park Softball Complex.
